South A1A businesses in Fort Pierce fear customers will forget them

CHRISTOPHER ARNOLD/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS
Brenda Roth, who, with her husband Jim, owns Dave's Diner in South Beach Plaza on Hutchinson Island, works Monday in the restaurant before the lunch crowd arrives. To help offset the effects of the road work on South A1A, the diner began staying open 24 hours Oct.1. "You're working twice the amount of hours to make up the same amount in the end," she said. Roth said she and her husband each work about 14 hours a day, seven days a week. Dave's Diner is at 1011 Seaway Drive.

Drivers navigate Seaway Drive near Binney Drive in December 2012. Road reconstruction on that stretch of South A1A was stalled because material under the roadway appears to be unsuitable for repaving, according to the state Department of Transportation.

She says Dave's Diner has suffered from more than two years of reconstruction on South A1A, and the recently stalled work on a portion of it near the restaurant hasn't helped.

Some people have told her former regular customers avoid the torn-up road by going to another restaurant for breakfast. She's afraid she won't regain those customers, even when the project is finished.

"By the time they finish this, they (the former customers) will be accustomed to going there, and they won't come back," she said.

Fort Pierce city commissioners voiced frustration earlier this month about the two-month delay of work on a stretch from near Dave's Diner to the Pelican Yacht Club.

The problem is that material under the roadway appears to be unsuitable for repaving, the state Department of Transportation has told the city. City commissioners said the state has acted too slowly to rectify the problem.

"We need pressure on them to come up with a solution," Commissioner Ed Becht said.

City Manager Robert Bradshaw wrote to James Wolfe, district secretary of the Department of Transportation, asking for help.

"During these economic times, businesses are struggling to stay open," he wrote. "This prolonged delay is starting to put undue adversity on these local proprieters."

Jeffrey LeClaire, DOT operations support manager for the project, said he expected to receive soil boring test results soon.

The problem is the discovery of "very fine silky materials" under that stretch of roadway, he said. Those materials have the "consistency of tapioca pudding," he said. Workers could pave over the materials, but probably "in three to five years it would have to be redone," he said.

Former Fort Pierce Mayor Bob Benton was incredulous that the material under that portion of roadway is different from that beneath other segments. He also said that part was in no worse condition than other areas.

LeClaire said it's not unusual to find the differences in materials.

"I found that in many projects I've done and I've been doing this 40 years," he said.

Depending on the solution, the state and the city may have to discuss added costs to the $5 million project.

Lee Pryor, who works at the Seaway Market and Deli, said he hopes a solution comes soon.

"This whole thing has disrupted our lives," he said. "You would think after three years they would be done."

Roth agreed, saying, "They're not moving any too quickly on any of it," she said. "I know it has to be done, but ..."